Category: Death and Immortality
-
Dust and Ashes
"Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis 3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. Luther's German: Im Schweiße…
-
Death as the Muse of Morality Limits our Immorality
Substack latest.
-
On the Eternal in Man
Theodor Haecker, Journal in the Night (tr. Alexander Dru, Pantheon Books, 1950, p. 67, #263, written 1940): The man who explicitly does not believe and does not will to believe (for the will to believe belongs to believing) in an eternal life, that is to say in a personal life after death, will become an animal,…
-
Boethius and the Second Death of Oblivion: Ubi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii manent?
We die twice. We pass out of life, and then we pass out of memory, the encairnment in oblivion more final than the encairnment in rocks. Boethius puts the following words into the mouth of Philosophia near the end of Book Two of the Consolations of Philosophy. Where are Fabricius's bones, that honourable man? What…
-
Death
Death is a journey to a destination the existence of which cannot be known prior to arrival.
-
Preparing to Die
Some want to die; some wait to die; some fear to die; some don't care whether they live or die. The philosopher prepares to die.
-
Contemplating Suicide?
Are you quite sure that there is a way out? It may be that there is no exit. You can of course destroy your body, and that might do the trick. But then again it might not. Or is it perfectly obvious that you are either identical to your body or necessarily dependent for your…
-
Do You Value This Life? How Much?
It is the hour of death. You are informed by an utterly reliable source that you have exactly two options. You can either accept death and with it utter annihilation of the self, or you can repeat your life with every last detail the same. But if every last detail is to be the same,…
-
Are the Dead Subject to Harm?
Suppose the executrix of my will fails to disburse the funds I have earmarked for the local food bank after my death and instead heads for Las Vegas with the loot. Has she harmed me? Stolen my money? Violated my wishes? Substack latest. I can't eat a no-longer-existent sandwich or kick a no-longer-existent ball. How…
-
On Death: Objective and Subjective Views
Death viewed objectively seems normal, natural, and 'acceptable.' And not evil. Is it evil that the leaves of deciduous trees fall off and die in the autumn? There are more where they came from. It is nature's way. Everything in nature goes the way of the leaves of autumn. If this is not evil, why…
-
On the Fear of Death
Heute roth, morgen todt. I woke up from a dream an hour ago. I was staying with Philip Roth in his New York City apartment where I noticed that my beard had been shaved off. I said to myself, "You look good even without it." The vanity was cover for the fear that I am…
-
To Know for Sure; To Be Forever
Objective certainty is to knowledge what absolute immutability is to being. We want to know for sure; we want to be forever. The spiritually awake cannot be content to stumble along in the twilight and then just fall off a cliff. This message will not get through to the sleepwalkers of the sublunary. Perhaps a…
-
The Uselessness of Stoicism in the Face of Death
Substack latest.
-
Letter of Note
Into Eternity
-
On the ‘Inconceivability’ of Death
Or is death just a natural event like any other? Merton the monk triggers a Maverick meditatio mori.